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Ever since September 11, the world has not felt secure. Governments have been looking for solutions to various challenges and brainstorming on where the next attack may originate from. The supply chain is one of the most vulnerable areas that attackers may gain entry to the US infrastructure. Consequently, the US Congress has been on the forefront seeking ways of…
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Consumers are increasingly comfortable with AI. As people increasingly interact with AI technology, conversational AI is poised to revolutionize retail customer service. Conversational AI is a technology that uses speech-based assistants to create meaningful and natural interactions with customers, similar to talking to another human. Conversational interfaces allow businesses to increase the efficiency and personalization of their customer service while also…
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With shoppers finding much of what they want online, the future of the brick-and-mortar store can seem bleak. Such major retailers as J.C. Penney, Lowe’s, Gap and Family Dollar, among many others, have announced plans to close at least some stores across the United States this year.
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With shoppers finding much of what they want online, the future of the brick-and-mortar store can seem bleak. Such major retailers as J.C. Penney, Lowe’s, Gap and Family Dollar, among many others, have announced plans to close at least some stores across the United States this year.

In the past decade, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has come out as something that people use almost every day without even realizing it. Apart from powering a huge number of applications and other digital devices, this technology stands to benefit all industries including supply chain. In fact, many companies have already started benefiting from investing in AI. A report by State of Artificial Intelligence for Enterprises shows that supply chain is one of those areas which will significantly benefit from AI. On the other hand, PwC states that AI could inject up to $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030.

Imagine if you could always see your whole supply chain, pinpoint at any time which distributor or location from which it’s best to purchase materials, and then determine immediately which of all the sites is best to produce the material? The result would streamline the supply chain, and with AI, it’s possible.

In many ways the supply chain is the perfect type business to adopt cloud technologies. And in fact it may have been one of the first to do so when VANs began receiving, storing, and forwarding the very first orders between trading partners. So is it any surprise that IDC expects taht 80% of supply chain interactions will be cloud based by 2020?

Supply chain managers rise through the ranks for a few reasons. Generally they are valued for their management skills, business acumen, and experience. But experience may turn out to be less important as artificial intelligence moves into supply chain management and develops its ability to replace years of experience with deep learning and instant action. Machine learning is replacing personal experience, and doing a surprisingly good job at it.
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If you’re involved in any way with technology you’re innundated with stories about how blockchain is changing the world and every bit data is now saved from corruption and theft because… blockchain. Is the hype justified? Should you have been developing blockchain oriented systems for the last year? Will your entire supply chain crumble because you haven’t converted to blockchain?

Your supply chain has changed over the last couple years. Chances are that you’ve made technology improvements on your end but even if you haven’t changed a thing, some segments of your chain have changed and while each tech improvement likely made a positive change for the company that implemented it, you may not be getting any of the benefits. Here are the technologies that are creeping into the supply chain and what you should look for so you might be able to leverage those improvements for your own benefit.

The benefits of automating orders, invoices, and ASNs between your company and its customers are well known. Integrated documents are faster, less prone to error, and improve workflow among your people and systems. At this point, it would be rare to find a major retailer or manufacturer who isn’t using electronic documents to run their businesses. Not so rare, though, are small and medium sized businesses (SMB) still pushing paper. It’s about time for SMBs to make their move, isn’t it?

There was a time when companies moved data between applications by using text files, spreadsheets, or (really?) manual input. Those days still exist for companies only processing a few orders every month. The breaking point comes at somewhere around 250 orders per month, and for suppliers unprepared, what they thought would be a great change can be painful and even lead to larger problems.

Let’s have some fun with math. What EDI translator does your company use? For that matter, what ERP, 3PL, or other service is on your short list? Next, how many trading partners do you have? And finally, what EDI, ERP, and other electronic systems do they use? It doesn’t really matter whether you have the answers to these questions. What you would get even if you use the smallest estimates available is a very large number of permutations. How is it possible then to maintain compatibility and also keep up with the accelerated pace of today’s supply chain?
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